Anomalies and Curiosities of MedicineGould, George M. (George Milbrey)
Science
Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine
Gould, George M. (George Milbrey)
Abnormalities, Human; Medicine -- Anecdotes
In March, 1736, in a dairy cellar in the Strand, London, a poor woman
gave birth to 3 boys and 9 girls. In the same journal was reported the
birth at Wells, Somersetshire, in 1739, of 4 boys and a girl, all of
whom were christened and were healthy. Pare in 1549 gives several
instances of 5 children at a birth, and Pliny reports that in the
peninsula of Greece there was a woman who gave birth to quintuplets on
four different occasions. Petritus, a Greek physician, speaks of the
birth of quintuplets at the seventh month. Two males and one female
were born dead, being attached to the same placenta; the others were
united to a common placenta and lived three days. Chambon mentions an
instance of 5 at a birth. Not far from Berne, Switzerland, the wife of
John Gelinger, a preacher in the Lordship of Berne, brought forth
twins, and within a year after she brought forth quintuplets, 3 sons
and 2 daughters. There is a similar instance reported in 1827 of a
woman of twenty-seven who, having been delivered of twins two years
before, was brought to bed with 5 children, 3 boys and 2 girls. Their
length was from 15 1/2 to 16 1/2 inches. Although regularly formed,
they did not seem to have reached maturity. The mother was much
exhausted, but recovered. The children appeared old-looking, had
tremulous voices, and slept continually; during sleep their
temperatures seemed very low.
Kennedy showed before the Dublin Pathological Society 5 fetuses with
the involucra, the product of an abortion at the third month. At Naples
in 1839 Giuseppa Califani gave birth to 5 children; and about the same
time Paddock reported the birth in Franklin County, Pa., of
quintuplets. The Lancet relates an account of the birth of quintuplets,
2 boys and 3 girls, by the wife of a peasant on March 1, 1854. Moffitt
records the birth at Monticello, Ill., of quintuplets. The woman was
thirty-five years of age; examination showed a breech presentation; the
second child was born by a foot-presentation, as was the third, but the
last was by a head-presentation. The combined weight was something over
19 pounds, and of the 5, 3 were still-born, and the other 2 died soon
after birth. The Elgin Courant (Scotland), 1858, speaks of a woman
named Elspet Gordon, at Rothes, giving birth to 3 males and 2 females.
Although they were six months' births, the boys all lived until the
following morning. The girls were still-born. One of the boys had two
front teeth when born. Dr. Dawson of Rothes is the obstetrician
mentioned in this case.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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